Sharif Digital Repository

Nanomaterials adorned on graphene comprise an essential component of a wide range of devices wherein graphene-based copper oxide nanocomposites have garnered significant attention in recent years. Copper oxides (CuO and Cu2O) are semiconductors with distinctive optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. Their earth abundance, low cost, narrow bandgap, high absorption coefficient, and low toxicity of copper oxides are just a few key advantages. CuO is superior to Cu2O in optical switching applications because of its narrower bandgap. Therefore, integrating graphene with copper oxides renders the ensuing nanocomposites much more valuable for various applications. Not surprisingly, a wide... 

In this paper, the application of neural networks for simulation and optimization of the cogeneration systems has been presented. CGAM problem, a benchmark in cogeneration systems, is chosen as a case study. Thermodynamic model includes precise modeling of the whole plant. For simulation of the steady sate behavior, the static neural network is applied. Then using dynamic neural network, plant is optimized thermodynamically. Multi- layer feed forward neural networks is chosen as static net and recurrent neural networks as dynamic net. The steady state behavior of Excellent CGAM problem is simulated by MFNN. Subsequently, it is optimized by dynamic net. Results of static net have excellent... 

Application of Cogeneration systems based gas turbine for heat and power production is increasing. Because of finite natural energy resources and increasing energy demand the cost effective design of energy systems is essential. CGAM problem as a cogeneration system is considered here for analyzing. Two new approaches are considered, first in thermodynamic model of gas turbine and cogeneration system considering blade cooling of gas turbine and second using genetic algorithm for optimization. The problem has been optimized from thermodynamic and thermoeconomic view point. Results show that Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT) in thermodynamic optimum condition is higher than thermoeconomic one,... 

Application of Cogeneration systems based gas turbine for heat and power production is increasing. Because of finite natural energy resources and increasing energy demand the cost effective design of energy systems is essential. CGAM problem as a cogeneration system is considered here for analyzing. Two new approaches are considered, first in thermodynamic model of gas turbine and cogeneration system considering blade cooling of gas turbine and second using genetic algorithm for optimization. The problem has been optimized from thermodynamic and Thermoeconomic view point. Results show that Turbine Inlet Temperature (TIT) in thermodynamic optimum condition is higher than thermoeconomic one,... 

In this paper, the application of neural networks for simulation and optimization of the cogeneration systems has been presented. CGAM problem, a benchmark in cogeneration systems, is chosen as a case study. Thermodynamic model includes precise modeling of the whole plant. For simulation of the steady sate behavior, the static neural network is applied. Then using dynamic neural network, plant is optimized thermodynamically. Multi layer feed forward neural networks is chosen as static net and recurrent neural networks as dynamic net. The steady state behavior of CGAM problem is simulated by MFNN. Subsequently, it is optimized by dynamic net. Results of static net have excellence agreement... 

Objective(s): Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered as a chronic type of an inflammatory disease characterized by loss of myelin of CNS. Recent evidence indicates that Interleukin 17 (IL-17)-producing T helper cells (Th17 cells) population are increased and regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are decreased in MS. Despite extensive research in understanding the mechanism of Th17 and Treg differentiation, the role of microRNAs in MS is not completely understood. Thereby, as a step closer, we analyzed the expression profile of miR-9-5p and miR-106a-5p, and protein level of retinoic acid receptor (RAR)-related orphan receptor C (RORC; Th17 master transcription factor) as direct target of miR-106a-5p... 

Assessment of respiratory volume is extensively performed in clinical applications in order to assess the cases of respiratory illness and the progression of the respiratory syndromes. Respiratory plethysmography is employed to determine the changes of chest volume to monitor breathing. A wearable respiration measuring system has been introduced to detect volume variations of chests. The system consists of a flexible sensor, stretchable cloth and electrical board. The flexible sensor, which measures electrical voltage produced by extension movements, is installed inside the shirt and nearly contacts the chest. The system can be used everywhere and be self-applied by patients. The main... 

This paper proposes a method to suboptimally tune the control parameters in a conventional Lyapunov-Based method which shares the same concept of control design with sliding mode approach as applied to the robot manipulators. Optimal tuning of such parameters involves handling of nonlinearities in system dynamics and cost functions, which makes the problem challenging. We propose a step-by-step numerical algorithm that select suboptimal parameters while ensuring system stability. The controller is, suboptimal due to the facts that (1) it is in the form of a Slotine-type sliding mode control, (2) the numerical recursive algorithm might fall into a local minimum, and (3) the controller... 

Transparent electrowetting is a branch of Electrowetting on Dielectric (EWOD) devices that use transparent electrodes. These devices are often utilized for optical applications like liquid lenses and reflective displays. In this paper, for the first time, a transparent EWOD with permanent liquid electrodes is introduced. A conductive solution was used as electrodes instead of conventional solid-state ones. We study the speed of droplets in both the proposed design and a similar conventional Printed Circuit Board (PCB) EWOD. The concept of Liquid Electrode EWOD (LEWOD) is successfully implemented on both rigid and flexible substrates. Our results generally show a promising performance similar... 

There are several key challenges in performing cache-based attacks on ARM-based devices. Lipp et al. introduced various techniques to tackle these challenges and applied successfully different cache-based attacks on ARM-based mobile devices. In the cache-based attacks proposed by Lipp et al. it is assumed that the attacker has access to the mapping of virtual addresses to physical addresses through/proc/self/pagemap which is an important limiting factor in Linux and newer versions of Android operating systems. To access this mapping, the attacker must know the root of the operating system. In this paper, we introduce an Evict+Reload attack on the T-table-based implementation of AES which... 

CPU caches are powerful sources of information leakage. To develop practical cache-based attacks, the need for automation of the process of finding exploitable cachebased side-channels in computer systems is felt more than ever. Cache template attack is a generic technique that utilizes Flush+Reload attack in order to automatically exploit cache vulnerability of Intel platforms. Cache template attack on the T-table-based AES implementation consists of two phases including the profiling phase and key exploitation phase. Profiling is a preprocessing phase to monitor dependencies between the secret key and behavior of the cache memory. In addition, the addresses of T-tables can be obtained... 

This paper addresses the problem of optimal state-feedback design for a class of non-linear systems. The method is applicable to all non-linear systems which can be linearised using the method of state-feedback linearisation. The alternative is to use linear optimisation techniques for the linearised equations, but then there is no guarantee that the original non-linear system behaves optimally. The authors use feedback linearisation technique to linearise the system and then design a state feedback for the feedback-linearised system in such a way that it ensures optimal performance of the original non-linear system. The method cannot ensure global optimality of the solution but the global... 

In the present study, two novel annular photobioreactors (PBR) were developed to enhance microalgae growth. One of these photobioreactors used mirrors outside the PBR, while the other one utilized phosphorescence materials inside the PBR. The results of the study suggested that the use of mirrors and phosphorescence materials led to 70% and 30% increase, respectively, in the light intensity without any additional energy consumption. Further, the results revealed that when compared with the base case, the biomass concentration increased by 91% and 24% in PBR with mirrors and phosphorescence materials, respectively. In conclusion, an improvement in PBRs resulted in efficient light to biomass... 

We argue that there is an incompatibility between the two basic principles of Molinism, i.e., God’s middle knowledge of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, and divine immutability. To this end, firstly, we set out the difference between strong and weak immutability: according to the latter only God’s essential attributes remain unchanged, while the former affirms that God cannot change in any way. Our next step is to argue that Molinism ascribes strong immutability to God. However, according to Molinism, some counterfactuals of freedom need to be actualized by divine will. We argue that this claim does entail a change in God because it attributes a knowledge to God that involves moving... 

In this article, we investigate the problem of practical output regulation, i.e., to design a controller that brings the system output in the vicinity of a desired target value while keeping the other variables bounded. We consider uncertain systems that are possibly nonlinear and the uncertainty of their linear parts is modeled element wise through a parametric family of matrix boxes. An optimization-based design procedure is proposed that delivers a continuous-time control and estimates the maximal regulation error. We also analyze an event-triggered emulation of this controller, which can be implemented on a digital platform, along with an explicit estimate of the regulation error. ©... 

The low erosion resistance of titanium and its alloys has prevented their widespread application as joint implants. In addition, one essential requirement for the implants to bond with the living bone is the formation of a bone-like apatite on their surfaces in the host body. To enhance the erosion resistance of the surface, a diffused layer of TiB2 was formed at 1000uC on the commercial pure titanium. Hydroxyapatite was then coated on the boronised titanium by means of dip coating in a sol-gel solution. In order to confirm the biocompatibility of the specimens, they were soaked in a simulated body fluid for several days. The surface morphology of the specimens after exposure was studied by... 

We proposed a Primal-Dual Interior Point Method (PDIPM) to solve a combined Environmental and Economic Power Dispatch (EEPD) problem. The EEPD problem is a multiobjective problem with competing and non-commensurable objectives. The PDIPM produces a set of nondominated Pareto optimal solutions for the problem. Fuzzy set theory is employed to extract a compromise nondominated solution. The proposed algorithm is applied to the standard IEEE 30 bus six-generator test system. Comparison of our PDIPM results with the various algorithms reported in the literature shows that the solutions of the proposed algorithm are very accurate for the EEPD problem  

As the ordinary least squares (OLS) method is very sensitive to outliers as well as to correlated responses, a robust coefficient estimation method is proposed in this paper for multi-response surfaces in multistage processes based on M-estimators. In this approach, experimental designs are used in which the intermediate response variables may act as covariates in the next stages. The performances of both the ordinary multivariate OLS and the proposed robust multi-response surface approach are analyzed and compared through extensive simulation experiments. Sum of the squared errors in estimating the regression coefficients reveals the efficiency of the proposed robust approach. © 2018 Taylor... 

As the ordinary least squares (OLS) method is very sensitive to outliers as well as to correlated responses, a robust coefficient estimation method is proposed in this paper for multi-response surfaces in multistage processes based on M-estimators. In this approach, experimental designs are used in which the intermediate response variables may act as covariates in the next stages. The performances of both the ordinary multivariate OLS and the proposed robust multi-response surface approach are analyzed and compared through extensive simulation experiments. Sum of the squared errors in estimating the regression coefficients reveals the efficiency of the proposed robust approach. © 2017 Taylor...